Collin Hartman grabbed the long rebound and passed to teammate senior guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell on the wing. After hesitating for a second, Ferrell tossed an alley-oop pass to 6-foot-10 center Thomas Bryant, who dunked the ball with ease.
Bryant jogged down the court pumping his arms in the air, as what was left of the Assembly Hall crowd grew as loud as it had been all night.
Everything fell into place for the Hoosiers on Saturday night as they clobbered Morehead State 92-59.
“We were aggressive on both ends of the court, which is absolutely crucial,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “The other night, we weren’t aggressive on either end of the court.”
Three days removed from a 20-point loss to No. 7 Duke, IU has begun to adjust on the defensive end. And the offense that fans remember from before the Hoosiers’ trip returned Saturday.
IU used two big runs, one midway through the first half and another at the beginning of the second. Sophomore guard Rob Johnson gave IU its first lead of the game, 12-11. What followed was an 18-0 run, which allowed the Hoosiers to pull away.
During that stretch, Max Bielfeldt provided a lift off the bench — the redshirt senior scored eight of those 18 points and finished the game with 12. He added four rebounds to his perfect 5-for-5 shooting performance against the Eagles.
“I think just as a team we’re executing better,” Bielfeldt said. “I was just playing what they gave me, I wasn’t trying to do too much.”
If IU hadn’t already put the game out of reach for Morehead State, it did at the beginning of the second half, which opened with a 20-3 run.
Junior guard Troy Williams scored six of the Hoosiers’ first eight points during that time. He led the Hoosiers with 16 points — one of five players to finish in double digits.
IU repeatedly got to the rim — something it wasn’t able to do nearly as often against Duke — and the guards often took it from one end of the court to the other on their own for the layup.
Entering the night, Morehead State was leading the country in scoring defense. IU committed 13 turnovers Saturday, while forcing the Eagles into 23.
“They’re playing basic perimeter defense, and it’s kind of hard to get into the lane with those long arms,” Ferrell said. “What we wanted to do was to move the ball. That is a great team, and I can see them definitely winning the league.”
But the Hoosiers had no problem handling the Eagles, and they seemed to have fun doing it.
In the second half, James Blackmon Jr. went to the line for two free throws. When he missed the back half, Collin Hartman snuck around a Morehead State player before grabbing the rebound and putting it back in.
Hartman pointed to the bench. Crean pointed back and paced down the court pumping his fist, with a smile spread across his face.
“I’m really proud of the effort, the energy, the attitude, the way they responded,” Crean said. “It’s been a long couple weeks and I thought they did an outstanding job of learning from it and applying it and bringing their practice preparation to the court.”
